I almost felt sorry for him.

‘Not if you’re going to give way even more,’ said Leah. ‘This has gone far enough.’

Davy got up from his chair and came and squatted down at my feet. ‘Are you all right, Astrid?’ he mumbled. ‘You seem a bit out of it.’

I smiled gratefully at him and opened my mouth to speak, but closed it again. I couldn’t bear to talk about it. Not yet. I didn’t want this rabble turning their attention on me and showering me with their questions.

‘… in the light of rising house prices and tenants’ rights…’

‘I’ll tell you later,’ I mouthed.

‘… we need to reach an agreement on how much money is fair and reasonable,’ Pippa was saying. She sounded suddenly like a different person. Someone bureaucratic and pedantic.

‘You want him to pay you off,’ said Leah. ‘I might have known it would come down to money in the end.’

‘Oh, sorry,’ said Pippa. ‘How vulgar to mention it.’

‘I want to be fair,’ said Miles. He half turned and flung me a look of such desperate appeal that on another day I might have come to his rescue. Instead, I sat limply in the armchair and thought of Ingrid de Soto ’s mutilated face and felt nausea rise in me.

‘We have to work out a ratio,’ said Pippa, ‘depending on how long we’ve each been here.’

‘You would say that, wouldn’t you?’ said Leah. ‘You’ve been here the longest.’

‘What about all the work I’ve done on the house?’ put in Dario.

Beside me, Davy made a huffing sound and said something about damp courses.

‘What about the fact that you’ve paid no rent since you moved in?’ snapped Leah. ‘And it all needs redoing anyway.’

‘Are you sure you want to be alone with this lady, Miles?’ asked Dario.

‘I’ve not been here very long,’ said Davy.

‘You and me both, mate,’ said Owen.

‘No one’s going to lose out,’ said Miles. ‘How about fifteen thousand?’

‘Are you mad?’ exclaimed Leah. ‘Listen, Miles, you don’t have to give them anything at all. They haven’t got a leg to stand on and they know it. Don’t be intimidated.’

‘They’re my friends,’ said Miles. ‘Don’t interfere. Or don’t you want me to have friends? Is that it?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

‘Fifteen thousand each?’ said Pippa.

‘Pippa, you know I can’t afford anything like -’

‘Because a fifteen-thousand-pound lump sum, to be shared out between us, is insulting. We’ve lived here for years. We’ve helped you pay your mortgage. Now we have to find somewhere else to live. We have to put down deposits and buy furniture and begin again. Meanwhile, the value of your house has gone up tenfold.’

‘Twenty, then. In instalments.’

‘We all chipped in for the boiler,’ said Dario. ‘That cost loads.’

‘Yeah,’ said Pippa. ‘Even though some of us, not to mention names, Mick and Dario, get more benefit from it than others.’

‘If you don’t like my painting,’ said Dario, sulkily, ‘what about Astrid’s garden? She’s spent days, weeks, on that.’

‘Nobody asked her to do it,’ said Leah. ‘We’re having it dug up.’

At last I spoke. ‘What a cunt you are,’ I said.

Leah turned and stared at me. Her beautiful eyes were hard. ‘The cunt who got your man, though.’

‘Whoa,’ said Davy. He looked startled.

‘Have you never heard the word before?’ Leah asked brightly. ‘Up north, did they never…?’

‘Cunt,’ said Mick loudly. Everyone stared at him. Who was he talking to? Then Pippa gave a tiny giggle, and smacked a hand over her mouth.

‘Stop now,’ pleaded Miles. ‘This isn’t how to do anything.’

‘Why? I’m just starting to enjoy myself,’ said Leah.

‘I don’t care about the money,’ I said. ‘You can have mine, if you want. This is just really, really horrible.’

Silence fell on the room. For a moment, the expression on each face was frozen. Then the anger and self-righteousness turned into shame. Miles put his head in his hands for a moment, then lifted it again, meeting my eyes. ‘I wish this wasn’t happening,’ he said. ‘I wish I could turn back the clock.’

‘You can,’ said Dario, eagerly. ‘You can, mate. Just say the word.’

‘Let’s go to the pub,’ said Davy. ‘Get out of here. Talk about it later. Not rush into anything. Yes? What do you say?’

‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ said Leah, but nobody took any notice of her.

‘Good idea,’ said Dario. ‘The most sensible thing I’ve heard for hours. The first round’s on me, except I don’t have any money on me, now I come to think of it. Don’t know where it’s gone. Come on, Miles, don’t look so wretched. Nobody’s died.’

‘I don’t want to dig up your garden, Astrid,’ Miles said to me.

‘I can always make another.’

‘I tell you what, Pippa.’ Miles turned to her. ‘I should get the house valued, then come up with a proposal. Maybe I’ll get outside advice, just so we can try to keep everything as neutral as possible. I want to be fair. I hope you know I’m not out to rip you lot off.’

‘But are they out to rip you off?’ muttered Leah. ‘That’s what you’re not considering.’

Miles ignored her. ‘Perhaps we shouldn’t always have the whole household in on the discussions. It gets so heated. If you and I discuss things first, Pippa, then put it to the group… What d’you say?’

‘OK,’ said Pippa. ‘Why are you wearing those clothes, anyway, Astrid? Where did you get them from? A skip?’

‘I got them from the police,’ I said reluctantly.

It was a very strange sensation. It was as if I was suddenly a magnet drawing each element in the room towards me. Everyone turned to me, waiting for me to continue.

‘There was an accident,’ I said, then paused to consider the word. ‘Not an accident,’ I corrected myself. ‘There was a death. Someone died. I saw her. She was… she was dead in front of me.’

‘Again?’ breathed Davy.

‘What do you mean, not an accident?’

‘She was murdered,’ I said. ‘I saw her through the letterbox and I smashed the window and climbed in and she was lying on the floor. I touched her.’ I gave a little shudder. ‘I touched her and then I turned her over and her face was all…’

‘It’s all right,’ said Davy. ‘It’s all right. You don’t need to say.’

‘Cut up,’ I finished. ‘I’ve never seen a dead body close up before.’

‘But -’ began Miles.

‘Oh, fuck,’ breathed Dario.

‘You poor, poor thing,’ said Pippa.

‘I don’t want to talk about it any more,’ I said. ‘I just want to go to sleep.’

‘It’s still daytime,’ said Dario. ‘And we’re going to the pub.’

Davy cast him a ferocious look.

‘Who was she?’ asked Owen. The expression on his face was one of curiosity. ‘Did you know her?’

‘What?’ I shook my head. ‘No, I didn’t know her. I’d seen her before. She was just a client.’

‘Wow,’ said Dario. ‘Blimey. First Peggy and now this woman. What is it with you?’

‘Shut up, Dario,’ Pippa said. ‘Have a bit of tact.’

‘It doesn’t matter. He’s only repeating what the police have been saying half the day.’

‘It must have been terrifying,’ said Davy.

‘Yes.’

A brief silence fell. I could see that everyone was struggling to find the right questions without seeming too ghoulish.

‘You lot go to the pub,’ I said. ‘I’m not really in the mood.’

‘I’ll stay with you,’ said Pippa.

‘No. You go. I’d quite like to be alone for a bit.’